TRAVEL FEATURE - MEXICO GUILLERMO MACLEAN
THE LIGHT AND THE COLOUR
Monterrey , México , is an industrial city in the northeast state of Nuevo León nestled between mountains whose most important hill is La Silla . With a population of almost 1.5 million , it maintains a status as a " thriving " city due to ventures such as the glass , steel , cement , and beer industries . Culturally , it is a city in decline . Businessmen prefer to close museums and art foundations rather than promote them , with a few exceptions motivated more by ego than altruism .
Setting out one spring morning , I took the highway to the city of Saltillo , in the state of Coahuila , famous for housing a museum dedicated " to the desert ", which contains one of the most important collections of cacti in the world : The Desert Museum . The lobby of the building houses the largest steel mural ever created in Mexico , measuring 100 metres in length by
2.5 metres high , the work of yours truly , when commissioned to create it in the year of 2000 ; in addition to the mural , it also houses furniture , columns , doors and other artistic pieces in steel .
Arriving in Atlixco , a small town in the state of Puebla , during the evening I decided to stay at the Eco Aldeas Kumara complex , opposite the Popocatepetl volcano , which sporadically spews fumaroles and is active . I travelled 1,135 km , crossing the state of Coahuila on the mountainous road , then the long and boring desert straight between Matehuala and the state of San Luis Potosi crossing the Tropic of Cancer ; wonderful sierras and numerous roadside stalls offer dried snakes , to eat . Some even offering illegal fuel . By the time I entered the state of Guanajuato , I had travelled more than nine hours with sporadic stops for exercise , stretching and to eat . Having crossed the states of Hidalgo
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